Friday, March 16, 2012

Lightsaber update, more Artoo work

It's been a busy past couple of months between work, some photography work that I needed to complete, family, etc. I did finally complete my personal lightsaber back in February after replacing the Petit Crouton board and re-wiring everything again. This was an expense that I didn't really foresee and wasn't too pleased with. The first board was working fine during testing, but failed once I installed the parts into the hilt. Needless to say, I have a very bright red Sith saber.

For those reading who are interested in building sabers, (those non-technical non geeky sorta folk can skip down to the pics) here are the specs:

This was my first saber and I chose not to go all out with the effects. I do have an additional LED in the hilt to illuminate the pommel from the inside, but no flash on clash effect as this board could allow - I'll save that for my next one. Pics are below.

I did finally get to some work on Artoo. I disassembled him down to the frame this past week and added a styrene plate on to the shoulder area. I did this specifically to lock the legs in place and to keep them from shifting forward if the front caster catches on an object or crevice, stopping the forward motion. Hopefully this will allow the drive wheels to continue moving and push the front casters over the object. I've had some difficulty maneuvering the robot over crack in the sidewalk, door jambs, etc up to this point, and had to be aware of such obstacles to avoid a possible tip over.

I didn't take any pictures of this due to the minimal time that I had to get this work done. Artoo has a filming engagement this weekend for a small fan film. I have yet to figure out how to attach the rear door to the body and have two days left before the shoot. Needless to say, I'll be busy tonight.